


Bonds of Suspicion

by Repeatinglitanies



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Don’t copy to another site, Dubious Consent, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-01 00:34:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20456150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Repeatinglitanies/pseuds/Repeatinglitanies
Summary: Aug 31: First Kiss/Last KissVanya's husband kept to a schedule. So much so that Vanya didn't need a clock to know the time.





	Bonds of Suspicion

Vanya had barely opened her eyes. But she knew it was around half past midnight. She didn’t need to check the clock at her bedside table or look out at the view of her bedroom window. After all, she didn’t need eyes to feel the wet, hot pleasure his hands, teeth and tongue elicited from between her legs.

Her husband (they’ve been married for a year now but it still felt strange to call him that) kept to a schedule. As soon as he had his breakfast, he would have his chauffeur drive him to the massive corporation their father (The same man. Adopted, in his case. Biological, in hers) built from the ground up. He would spend his entire day there, only coming back home at seven pm sharp to have an utterly silent dinner with her before finally retreating to his home office. 

Vanya had never asked him to come to bed with her. And she suspected he would never accept in the first place. He kept his own time. And according to his own logic, the time to darken her doorstep and start fucking her was after midnight. Why he would choose the middle of the night to interrupt her sleep when he could have easily done the act a lot earlier, she would probably never know. From everything she’d heard, Number Five had always kept to himself even before Vanya first came to the manor that housed the man who contributed the sperm that made her.

In hindsight, Vanya supposed the fact that everyone called him Five should have clued her to his eccentricity. She soon found out that their father addressed all his children by number despite having perfectly normal names scrawled onto their birth certificates. But at fifteen, she had just lost her mother, indirectly due to a wasting illness that ensured both mother and daughter suffered (albeit in different ways) throughout their final years together. More deliberately, due to the man who had been identified as her father.

Reginald Hargreeves’ money ensured Vanya’s mother survived but at the price of Vanya’s freedom. She remembered that day at the hospital. Vanya had been trying to get her mother to eat when the sound of an open door caused her to turn to find an old man who needed no fine clothes or adornments to show how much he was set apart from the rest of the world. He also had the coldest eyes she had ever seen.

Apparently, her mother had contacted him, worried about what would happen to Vanya being left all alone. Her mother fully expected to die in that hospital. For whatever reason, Reginald Hargreeves decided to answer her call for help. But as Vanya soon found out, it wasn’t out of the goodness of his heart.

When he entered the room her mother shared with three other patients, he wasted no time assessing his new surroundings. Reginald Hargreeves was unimpressed. He didn’t need to utter a word. A look was all it took to broadcast his low opinion. Then he set his sights on Vanya, who was made to feel like some sort of specimen under a microscope. 

Not for the first time, the man caught her off-guard by cutting out small talk. Instead of asking how her mother was doing, how old Vanya was, or any of the other questions a father might ask a daughter he had never met, Reginald Hargreeves offered her a deal.

He had done his homework and knew that the only treatment that could save her mother’s life was beyond Vanya and her mother’s means. Fortunately, he could afford it. But he didn’t believe in giving things away for free. 

In exchange, Vanya had to cut all contact with her mother and come live with Reginald Hargreeves.

Vanya had no illusions that his offer was made out of fatherly sentiment. She highly doubted this man who was supposed to be her biological father had ever truly cared about anyone other than himself. If he ever did, then it looked liked decades had passed by since he felt any sort of compassion.

But there was no time to hesitate. Vanya knew deep in her bones that this man would not make the same offer twice. What other choice did she have but to accept it? 

Vanya was transported to the manor the same day. In her opinion, her new home might as well have been a mausoleum, filled with ornate worldly possessions but lacking vital signs of life. 

From then on, her father referred to her as Number Seven. 

The house was utterly silent with only two servants in attendance. Reginald Hargreeves took his privacy seriously. Thus, only two passed his rigid interview and background checks: Pogo who had been his oldest retainer and companion and Grace who acted as housekeeper.

While Hargreeves went straight back to work at his office, Grace directed her to the sitting room which displayed a portrait of Reginald Hargreeves with his six adopted children. Each child was beautifully put together and posed as if to show that they would have the world at the palm of their hands. Grace told her that all six have been sent to different boarding schools all around the world.

Vanya didn’t want to think too deeply about what sort of man adopted six children, all the same age as her, only to send them away to the furthest reaches of the globe. Then again, it didn’t really take great deductive powers to find out that Reginald Hargreeves was far from altruistic.

As he soon revealed, those six children were being groomed to take over certain aspects of the only thing he cared about: his company. Apparently, Grace’s definition of boarding school did not match Vanya’s, because each “school” as Reginald himself described sounded more like a training facility specifically tailored for each child.

Numbers One through Six were deliberately separated and situated at different parts of the world to prevent any form of fraternization. Reginald Hargreeves was paranoid down to the very core and believed that even the children he hand-picked might eventually turn against him should they mix and inherit each other’s bad habits. 

Each facility had tutors and trainers to ensure they were in great physical and mental shape to achieve Reginald Hargreeves’ ends. Vanya later found out that when she imagined each “school” was placed on a deserted island, or the peak of the highest mountain or some other remote location, her supposition wasn’t far off. Reginald designed it that way. He didn’t want his potential heirs mixing with the masses.

Vanya actually hoped she’d be sent to one of those schools as well. She knew she’d hate it. But not as much as staying in the same roof as this cold, bloodless man.

But Vanya wouldn’t be so lucky. The schools were for the future leaders of his company. Reginald Hargreeves had other plans for Vanya, plans that eventually put her directly in Number Five’s path even though they would only meet six years later.

Vanya’s value lay in her genetic relation to Hargreeves. So she was to stay in the mansion, learn to run the household and keep the family secrets. And when the time was right, she would marry Reginald’s successor and produce heirs. 

Had Reginald’s aid only stopped at paying for her mother’s hospitalization, Vanya might have run away. However, while the treatment saved her mother’s life, it didn’t mean that her mother had made a full recovery. Thus, Vanya needed Reginald’s help to pay for caretakers and medication. According to the doctors, her mother may need them for the rest of her life.

So Vanya had to go along with Reginald’s schemes. She hoped that someone, maybe one of his adopted children would put a stop to this or even point out how insane his plan was. But Reginald was a rich and powerful man. No one ever did say anything.

The day she met the heir apparent, Number Five, in person was their wedding day. At the time, they were both twenty-one, considered old enough to legally consume alcohol, live wherever they wished and marry without the consent of a legal guardian. 

But Vanya needed no reminders of her lack of options. Reginald Hargreeves did that every day since she decided to live with him. Had circumstances been different, she would have taken her chances on the streets. But her mother needed his money to survive. So Vanya stayed and did she was told.

For six years, she was taught how to dress, how to eat, how to present herself in public. Basically, how to be the perfect puppet to be led by Reginald Hargreeves strings. By the time she and the rest of Hargreeves’ children were eighteen, the old man had chosen Number Five to helm the company after him. And with that came briefings telling her all she needed to know about Five.

There was something chilling in the way Reginald Hargreeves chose to have his adopted children brought up. With only professional instructors and trainers for company in compounds miles away from civilization, each child’s progress down to the most minute detail was monitored and recorded. In Five’s case, Vanya even got to see some of the recordings.

Five’s instructors reported an ambitious young man who wanted to excel at everything he put his mind to. Number Five’s main strengths were his analytical skills which made maths and other related subjects almost too easy for him. So easy that he started surpassing his teachers. Soon enough, Five had started making his own curriculum.

Hargreeves ended up firing his teachers, at Five’s request. They had nothing more to teach Five. But he did retain the trainers, which was a surprise to Vanya who had assumed Hargreeves only valued academics. Apparently, Reginald wanted a more well-rounded heir.

To this self-made billionaire, his adopted children must also be in peak physical condition, ready to defend themselves should the need arise. Reginald Hargreeves made a lot of enemies on his rise to the top. Those same enemies would jump at the chance to destroy everything he built. And he needed his heirs to be strong enough, and ruthless enough to deflect attacks and survive long enough to launch a counter strike.

From the looks of it, Number Five had all the qualities Hargreeves was looking for. In fact, Number Five, with the way he regarded everyone around him and the way he moved, was too much like Reginald Hargreeves. If Vanya hadn’t known any better, she would have thought Five really was Reginald’s natural son.

On more than one occasion, she was forced to watch recordings of Five successfully tracking and killing various game. He did it all with no emotion even as he cut a deer’s throat and blood poured out.

Vanya shuddered at the thought of having to share a bed and a life with this strange person. To her utter surprise, it wasn’t always a shudder of revulsion. Perhaps she had spent too long in this household and it lead her to be fascinated by dangerous and deadly things.

As with everyone Reginald allowed to be around her, Vanya was sure Five was as loyal to the old man as Pogo and Grace. Trying to convince Number Five to cancel the wedding was never an option. So she never even made the attempt.

So it was that the first words Vanya heard him say was “I do.” After which, they barely spoke two words to each other during the wedding reception. 

When Five was told that he could kiss the bride, what he gave her was nothing more than a quick peck on the lips, which frankly startled Vanya. Despite his good looks, she couldn’t get the image of Reginald Hargreeves out of her head whenever she looked at Five. That only gave her the urge to wipe away the feel of his lips on hers. She resolved that this would be the only time their lips would ever touch. Both a first and last kiss.

The reception passed much too quickly for Vanya’s liking. Not that she enjoyed the all too sedate celebration of two strangers starting a life together. But she dreaded being alone with this new husband of hers. 

By now, Vanya was used to having to follow a designated script. When the last of the guests had gone and Reginald Hargreeves had retired to his wing of the mansion, she was to lead Five to their bedroom. What was to happen next went without saying. Reginald Hargreeves didn’t bother spelling it out for her because she already knew what her sperm donor wanted to happen.

It was unfortunate that for all of Reginald Hargreeves’ micromanagement, that was the one aspect he didn’t bother walking her through. And Vanya honestly didn’t know if she should feel grateful for that.

Because what did she know about getting the stranger who was now her husband to sleep with her? Vanya may know all about him down to his favorite snack (Peanut Butter and Marshmallow Sandwiches) and his favorite subject (math). But she didn’t know him. Not really. Not even with all the facts she had been supplied.

As it turns out, she had worried for nothing. Because he was on her as soon as she closed their bedroom door. It was like he became a different person. Gone was the calm and collected young man who stood with her at the altar. He was replaced by the feral man who accidentally scratched her too sensitive skin in his haste to tear her wedding dress away from her.

The first time she saw all of him, she knew that it would hurt. She had never done this before. After all, Vanya had been stuck in the manor with only the old man, Pogo and Grace for company. There was no one to lose her virginity to until now. 

Vanya didn’t think he would fit inside her. But after using his cock like a battering ram amid her tears of pain (she kept her eyes closed and her face away from him the whole time), he managed it. She was thankful she managed to stifle the sobs that threatened to come out. She held it as he finally found his pleasure and filled her with what she was told was needed to get her pregnant. She again held the sob in when he chose to doze on top of her immediately right after the act, with her legs splayed and him still far too deep inside her.

Fortunately, he woke up a few minutes later and finally got off her. And she took the chance to rush to the bathroom to clean herself up and let it all out. 

And for a moment she allowed self-pity to take over as she despaired having this to look forward to for the foreseeable future. Having to suffer through sex in order to get pregnant. Having a child with a man she barely even knew but believed to be exactly like the man who orchestrated all of this. And having to do it all over again to ensure there were more children.

To top it all off, she found some sort of gravitational pull towards this man. Despite the circumstances that brought them together. Despite what should have been total revulsion at the way he was all too much like Reginald Hargreeves. 

Perhaps she had been too long without actual physical contact. Because she suspected that she would welcome his touch in spite of what pain she would have to endure afterwards. And it had nothing to do with her mother or Reginald Hargreeves.

The next night, she had prepared herself for more of the same. Vanya laid back and spread her legs. She was still self-conscious about putting herself on display for him. But she figured that the sooner they started, then the sooner this could end. And at least, there would be the minimal comfort of feeling another person’s skin against her own as if she were a puppy who needed a litter mate to be able to sleep. 

To her surprise, instead of lining the head of his cock up to penetrate her, he placed his mouth _there_. 

She had never felt anything as good in her life. Afterwards, she couldn’t remember ever being so wet down there.

She didn’t know if she liked the sticky, wet feeling. But she found that it didn’t hurt as much when the thing between his legs entered her. And soon enough, the pain inside her was giving way to pleasure.

When it was all over, Vanya discovered that she wouldn’t mind doing it again. Five had no objections.

If only they got along just as well during the times they weren’t in bed having sex. Because nothing about their relationship changed just because sex started becoming fun.

In the morning, it was like the previous night’s activities never happened. There were no cuddles or declarations of love and devotion. No morning kisses or morning sex. 

Five followed a strict schedule. As far as he was concerned, fucking was reserved only for some time after midnight. 

Good thing Vanya didn’t delude herself into thinking their nightly romps were more than what they were. Five was free to have his way with her body. It was all part of the deal after all and Reginald Hargreeves had bought and paid for Five to use it.

The only thing she would withhold is a kiss. A kiss wasn’t necessary for what Reginald wanted so Vanya was free to keep it for herself. And despite everything she’d experienced since coming to the manor, maybe even because of it, she was still human. Vanya was lonely enough to admit that she craved the nights with Five because she wanted the excuse to hold someone.

But it was a fine line from temporarily clinging to something for survival to depending on it to breathe. And she feared that if she ever let Five kiss her, she would lose that last piece of herself. Vanya would allow Five everything. Because she would fall in love with him.

Vanya could not afford that. Because Five was exactly like Reginald Hargreeves. And only fools would give their hearts to someone who fundamentally had none.

\-----------------

Number Five grew up knowing that things easily given can just as easily be taken away. This was why he worked hard to accumulate knowledge and power. He had expended a lot of time, sweat and effort to gain them so it stands to reason it would be just as much work to wrest them from his hands. 

Despite spending the majority of his life in a training facility away from the outside world, he soon learned that he could have power over everyone around him.

When he was first brought to the “school,” all his tutors/caretakers thought they could simply bully him into doing whatever they wanted. And initially, that was true.

But not for long. After all, Five was the sole reason they had a job. Once Five realized that, everything soon fell into place. The man who adopted him didn’t care how exactly Five was brought up as long as Number Five excelled in all his subjects. So he intentionally flunked his exams as well as blatantly disregarding instructors he considered incompetent. 

Instructors who resorted to the physical form of persuasion didn’t fare any better. Five may have been a scrawny child. But he was a wily and stubborn one. Not to mention, a vindictive one. After the first few times he had been physically “disciplined,” he had learned to hold his ground. Five found out that those instructors soon ran out of options once Five conquered his fear of punishment. 

In fact, those same teachers didn’t fare as well when the tables were turned. Five was an apt pupil. He listened closely to his self-defense teachers and practiced every chance he got until he finally used his earnestly-honed skills on those that attempted to subjugate him.

Five’s emotional and mental well-being may not have been at the top of Reginald Hargreeves’ list of priorities. But like any man who sacrificed nearly everything he had to achieve his wealth, Reginald Hargreeves cared a lot about how his money was being spent. So when the old man found out about the drop in Five’s previously spotless grades and watched recordings of the instructors’ inability to perform their duties, they were fired. 

Five suffered no delusions. The old man did it to maintain order and cut costs rather than punish teachers that had abused his adopted child. Cameras were everywhere in the training facility. The old man had known about the abuse just as he’d known about the late nights Five spent on his lessons, preferring to teach himself what he needed to know rather than rely on idiots who got high on their power over a young boy.

Five’s genius was only highlighted when Hargreeves made him sit on a standardized aptitude test on the same day he fired the abusive teachers. Five certainly wasn’t surprised he scored high. He did forego sleep to learn. 

Five may have hated most of his teachers. But he loved to being able to one-up his teachers. Knowledge is power and all that.

Once those idiots were gone, the ones that remained (those that Five knew weren’t morons) started to fear him. It didn’t bother Five in the slightest. In fact, he welcomed it. Because, this way, no one else would think to hurt or belittle him again. And his time for gaining knowledge and strength wouldn’t be squandered by another’s sick, twisted power games.

After that, life at the “school” passed by relatively peacefully for Five.

That is, until Reginald Hargreeves informed him that he had been chosen to succeed Reginald. That, in itself, was no problem. Five even expected it.

What Number Five didn’t account for or welcomed was the added baggage of being required to marry Reginald’s biological daughter. He didn’t trust anything given to him that he didn’t spend blood, sweat and time to earn. Unlike his acquisition of broad knowledge and his skills in self defense and weapons, being given a fiancee was something that could easily be undone. So he decided not to waste too much time thinking about it. 

The first Bourbon king had to convert to Catholicism and marry the daughter of the ruling family of Valois in order to gain the French crown. That same king was later able to have this marriage annulled while keeping his royal status. Five was confident he could pull off something along the same vein without a hitch.

Unfortunately, Reginald Hargreeves had other ideas. Perhaps the old man knew Five better than Five knew himself. Because not long after the announcement, Five started receiving videos of Vanya, showing her with Grace and Pogo, learning how to manage a household, playing her violin, and working hard at her lessons.

Despite knowing better, Vanya mesmerized him. And he wondered what it would be like to talk to her, to get to know her in person.

He hated that he was unable to control himself when it came to her. Five had often told himself that Vanya was just another possession that could be snatched away from him. He hadn’t expended anything to gain her. 

All the same, a part of him looked forward to having her.

It didn’t help that Reginald also sent him recordings of Vanya in the bath and in her room, all in various states of undress. Five blamed it on puberty and his lack of contact with people his age. But every night, he’d imagine Vanya making her way to his bed, her arms encircling him in an embrace as soon as she reached him. She would lie down next to him and keep him warm in a way his blankets and heater could not.

Five had always prided himself on his self-discipline. But all that control went out the window once Vanya entered the picture. Because even in his sleep, the image of her haunted him. 

He actually wanted to believe the real Vanya was the same as the one he conjured in his head. But Five knew better. She’s the biological daughter. He didn’t trust the old man. And Five didn’t need much contact to know that the old man felt the same about him. 

Five had no compunctions about employing Reginald Hargreeves’ age old tactics and business strategies. But that didn’t mean he was the old man’s lackey. Five had other plans for the company he was to inherit.

He had no doubt the old man suspected it, at the very least. And Vanya was as much her father’s spy as she was the only chance Reginald Hargreeves had to propagate his genes into the future. 

Thus, all irrational impulses to attempt actual contact with Vanya before their marriage were quashed.

So it was that the first time they met face to face was the day of their wedding. And he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. He didn’t do much talking that day because he was too busy restraining himself from touching her and finding out if she was as soft and smooth as she looked.

Everything went downhill from there, from that brief touch of lips at the ceremony to the disastrous wedding night. Despite his genius level IQ, it had never occurred to him to learn more about sex. He knew the basic mechanics of it. And for a long time, he’d known he wanted to do it with Vanya. But he thought the urge was just the primal need in every human to mate. Five was naive enough to think that once he’d fulfilled this desire, it would abate. And he could go back to the days when he never even knew of her existence.

But he was wrong. It felt really good to be inside her. As soon as he felt the vise-like grip of her walls on his cock, he had to close his eyes to keep focus on the task at hand. He felt like he would spill himself then and there. But thankfully, he managed to hold himself long enough to enjoy finally being with her like this.

Before he knew it, he found himself lying on her. And as soon as he took himself away from her soft, warm body, she rushed to the bathroom.

He heard her crying not long after. It occurred to him that she didn’t enjoy the experience at all.

Five couldn’t have that. He couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason why. But he just couldn’t tolerate it.

He winced inwardly as he found books that pretty much highlighted how badly he had performed on their wedding night. But Five had never been one to give up or back away from a challenge. It took longer than he would have wished. But she started craving sex just as much as he did.

Not that she would ever admit it. 

Because neither of them trusted the other. The only thing bonding them together was a piece of paper that said they were married and their nightly couplings.

By day, they might as well be strangers. 

As a rule, Five did not lament on things he could never have. And he had lived his life never looking back on what could have been. What would it have been like if his parents never sold him to Reginald Hargreeves? What if he decided to live a normal life (whatever that meant)? 

Those questions had briefly crossed his mind. But he had never allowed them to dwell there. 

But a year into their marriage, he started to wonder what if he could have more with Vanya? For better or worse, they were stuck together (at least for as long as their “father” was alive). So they might as well make the best of it.

Lately, he had found himself wondering what she looked like when she smiled. Not the one she used when entertaining guests. But a genuine one that had warmth reaching her eyes. 

What would it be like if she kissed him or if he kissed her? Not that quick, half-a-second meeting of lips that they shared during the wedding but one that was more akin to consuming one another in an attempt to become truly one flesh.

Not for the first or the last time, Five worked to dispel those thoughts. 

There was no such thing as fairy tales or happily ever afters. He kept his distance for a reason. And he didn’t need emotional entanglements to further complicate matters. 

The plan was to gain control of the company, convince Vanya on a speedy divorce via a generous settlement (with the way they went at it, an annulment was out of the question), and then dismantle Reginald Hargreeves’ company. 

That would be his revenge on the old man. The only thing that he should be regretting was that he would have to wait until Reggie was dead in order to do it. 

Developing an emotional attachment to a girl who might get in the way of his plans was definitely out of the question. And not for the first or last time, Five had to steel himself with the reminder that he was doing them both a favor by maintaining their distance.

This was easier said than done. Because despite his best efforts, he couldn’t really stay away from her. He told himself that he had to continue fucking her simply to maintain cover. To show Reginald that he was staying in line.

But the truth of the matter was that he couldn’t help himself. Every night, he planned to tire himself out, planned to stay up until he could no longer keep his eyes open and thus spare Vanya an interruption to her sleep. But it never turned out the way he planned. By the time midnight had come and gone, his body would seem to move on its own volition. And he would find himself spreading her legs and devouring her like he hadn’t had anything to eat in days.

He could only hope that his obsession would soon wear off. Five knew he had to let her go at some point.

But somehow, a part of him despaired that he wouldn’t be able to do that.


End file.
